4 ms·

I'm pretty happy with kind on Rancher Desktop on a mac!

by yebyen 4y ago

bogomipz 4y ago
What does the Rancher Desktop give you that you don't get with just plain KinD?
- yebyen 4y ago
  KinD requires some docker engine to run it on. That's all I'm using from Rancher. It allows me to switch between containerd and docker-engine. My options on this physical machine as I see it are: lima, rancher desktop, or Docker Desktop itself. I don't actually use Rancher Desktop for its Kubernetes integration, and in earlier versions it wasn't even possible to do this without weird vague workarounds, but now it has an "Off" switch, and I use it for the rare occasion that I need to run container images locally, or a kind cluster. I ruled out Docker Desktop because I can't use it alongside of other VMs (not because it doesn't work, which I understood to be true for Windows users, but because it is composed of a virtual machine, with a memory footprint, and one shouldn't have too many of those unless you have a beast of a laptop...) and because it requires paid volume licensing. Don't get me wrong, I like to pay for things, but I also like to evaluate alternatives! I used this for a while: https://github.com/lima-vm/lima/blob/master/examples/k8s.yaml https://github.com/lima-vm/lima/blob/master/examples/k8s.yam... It wasn't quite perfectly stable, also not maintained by the Kubernetes core team but externally, so it has to play catch-up a bit when releases are done, rather than in the case of KinD it can enjoy a release on the schedule with Kubernetes. I am a kubeadm baseline user and I find that Kind is actually the best way to do experiments (I don't use MiniKube at all so can't compare) Some experiments require a bit more control of the VM that runs your CRI and for those there are raw nodes (physical machines) or a Lima VM for a convincing approximation of one. When there's a need to go to production, I'm generally not using any of these choices, but I am using KinD quite extensively (even on remote nodes!) through tailscale. This is actually really nice.
  - rad_gruchalski 4y ago
    I'm still not sure what's the benefit. The only thing I got out of this is that Docker Desktop requires payment for volume licensing.
    - yebyen 4y ago
      Yeah. So if you don't want to pay Docker/Mirantis for the privilege of using their open source implementation of the open container initiative standard on the MacOS, what else do you do with your Mac to run docker containers? Are you using Docker Desktop? (Do you pay?) That is the benefit and that's literally all I use Rancher Desktop for. A Docker Desktop replacement. It also works with KinD, that was my whole point. Since one might assume it doesn't work (or maybe they tried in the past and found it didn't work at some point in the past) – today it works great. If you have another alternative to suggest how you can run KinD on MacOS, I'm all ears. I'm literally using a full stack open source approach, to pay a gatekeeper in order to access it from my MacOS workstation seems like an anti-thesis to me.

I'm pretty happy with kind on Rancher Desktop on a mac!

by yebyen 4y ago

I'm pretty happy with kind on Rancher Desktop on a mac!

bogomipz 4y ago

What does the Rancher Desktop give you that you don't get with just plain KinD?

yebyen 4y ago
KinD requires some docker engine to run it on. That's all I'm using from Rancher. It allows me to switch between containerd and docker-engine. My options on this physical machine as I see it are: lima, rancher desktop, or Docker Desktop itself. I don't actually use Rancher Desktop for its Kubernetes integration, and in earlier versions it wasn't even possible to do this without weird vague workarounds, but now it has an "Off" switch, and I use it for the rare occasion that I need to run container images locally, or a kind cluster. I ruled out Docker Desktop because I can't use it alongside of other VMs (not because it doesn't work, which I understood to be true for Windows users, but because it is composed of a virtual machine, with a memory footprint, and one shouldn't have too many of those unless you have a beast of a laptop...) and because it requires paid volume licensing. Don't get me wrong, I like to pay for things, but I also like to evaluate alternatives! I used this for a while: https://github.com/lima-vm/lima/blob/master/examples/k8s.yaml https://github.com/lima-vm/lima/blob/master/examples/k8s.yam... It wasn't quite perfectly stable, also not maintained by the Kubernetes core team but externally, so it has to play catch-up a bit when releases are done, rather than in the case of KinD it can enjoy a release on the schedule with Kubernetes. I am a kubeadm baseline user and I find that Kind is actually the best way to do experiments (I don't use MiniKube at all so can't compare) Some experiments require a bit more control of the VM that runs your CRI and for those there are raw nodes (physical machines) or a Lima VM for a convincing approximation of one. When there's a need to go to production, I'm generally not using any of these choices, but I am using KinD quite extensively (even on remote nodes!) through tailscale. This is actually really nice.
- rad_gruchalski 4y ago
  I'm still not sure what's the benefit. The only thing I got out of this is that Docker Desktop requires payment for volume licensing.
  - yebyen 4y ago
    Yeah. So if you don't want to pay Docker/Mirantis for the privilege of using their open source implementation of the open container initiative standard on the MacOS, what else do you do with your Mac to run docker containers? Are you using Docker Desktop? (Do you pay?) That is the benefit and that's literally all I use Rancher Desktop for. A Docker Desktop replacement. It also works with KinD, that was my whole point. Since one might assume it doesn't work (or maybe they tried in the past and found it didn't work at some point in the past) – today it works great. If you have another alternative to suggest how you can run KinD on MacOS, I'm all ears. I'm literally using a full stack open source approach, to pay a gatekeeper in order to access it from my MacOS workstation seems like an anti-thesis to me.